Indo-Pacific drawn glass beads
Cuentas de vidrio estirado indopacíficas
- Date
- c. 200 BCE · confidence medium
- Place
- Arikamedu, Puducherry, India
- Credited to
- Workshops of southern India
- Field
- Matter & energy
What it is
Mass-production technique for small, monochrome beads by cutting a glass tube drawn from the crucible. Billions were made and they reached from the Mediterranean to Korea and East Africa.
Arikamedu, Mantai (Sri Lanka) and Giong Ca Vo (Vietnam) are production centres; the term was coined by Peter Francis.
What it led to
- Indian Ocean trade
- spread of glassworking to Sri Lanka and South-East Asia